(May 2008.)
Misty Harbor Condominium | AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod.
Less than a decade and a half after its first appearance in town in 1982, AIDS had claimed more than 385 lives, one-tenth of the permanent population, Jeanne Braham and Pamela Peterson wrote in Starry, Starry Night. By then, the Provincetown AIDS Support Group had established its front-line quarters in the Queen Anne-style Odd Fellows Hall, used from 1895 to 1955 by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, one of whose missions was visiting and caring for the sick. PASG was founded in 1983 by Alice Foley, the town nurse; Preston Babbitt, proprietor of the Rose & Crown; and others. Its services include case management, transportation assistance, food and nutrition programs, H.I.V. prevention and screening, and housing. By merger in 2001, it became the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. Foley died in 2009; Babbitt in 1990, of AIDS. — From Building Provincetown (2015).
ALTERNATE TEXT: Within 14 years of its first appearance in Provincetown in 1982, AIDS had claimed more than 385 lives — one-tenth of the town’s permanent population — Jeanne Braham and Pamela Peterson wrote in Starry, Starry Night. To the extent that patients, survivors and caregivers formed their own cohort, it’s fitting that they should have situated one of their oases in an old fraternal hall. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows dedicated the Queen Anne-style Odd Fellows Hall on 15 October 1895. For a sense of the order’s prominence in civic life, you have only to note the number of headstones in the Town Cemetery carved with three chain links, signifying an I.O.O.F. member. By 1955, however, the number of living members was down to 26. The lodge closed this hall and merged with the Orleans chapter. In the early ’80s, Helen Brown and Bejay Prescott ran the Aspasia Guesthouse, which was popular among women of color. The building was converted into seven apartments and three commercial units under the name Misty Harbor Condominium in 1986, by Gerald B. Magid. The ground-floor tenant is the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, founded in 1983 as the Provincetown AIDS Support Group. The name of the founding executive director, Alice Foley, is commemorated at Foley House, a group residence at 214 Bradford Street.
¶ Last updated on 7 May 2011.